The present invention mainly refers to a suspended runway intended for entertainment purposes.
There are known runway structures intended for entertainment purposes, which comprise a supporting structure and a track line structure forming a runway, sustained by said supporting structure, which runway extends with rectilinear and curvilinear sections departing from a upper start section and ending to a lower arrival section, and is intended to be traveled by non-automotive vehicles, driven by gravity. Such structures are embodied either in a large size (so-called “switch-back railway” or “scenic railway”) intended to be traveled by passengers carrying vehicles, or in a small size, intended to be used as a game and to be traveled by vehicle models, which often are represented by simple marbles. In view of its nature, the runway should be descending in its whole, but it may include some sections horizontal or ascending, intended to be traveled by the vehicles by consuming the kinetic energy acquired in a preceding descending section, and in certain cases it may also include some sections whose travel has an acrobatic character, in that a vehicle having a sufficient speed is kept in contact with the runway by the centrifugal force, whereas in stationary conditions or at a reduced speed the vehicle would not be stable on these runway sections.
In the known runways, the supporting structure extends on about the entire area occupied by the whole of the runway, and the track line structure extends about entirely inside the region occupied by the supporting structure, by projecting only for practically negligible extensions with sections overhanging with respect to the supporting structure. This means, on one side, that the supporting structure should have a large expansion, and on the other side that heavy limitations are imposed to the design of the track line structure and, therefore, to the whole of the runway.
Moreover, the fact that the travel of the vehicles takes place substantially inside the supporting structure limits the emotions excited by the vehicle travel, both in the carried passengers, when they exist, and in those who observe from outside the vehicle travel.